Jesus will now use the Older Testament scriptures to teach truth to
Nicodemus. Jesus will give Nicodemus three answers to his question,
“How can this be?”
- Moses and the bronze serpent on the pole v14
- God's love v16
- Belief (Faith) v16
Jesus
uses an event in the Older Testament that Nicodemus would be familiar
with to show Nicodemus that He is the fulfillment of these
scriptures. As a teacher of the Older Testament scriptures,
Nicodemus should relate to what Jesus is teaching him. Jesus will
compare the bronze serpent on the pole to Himself. The serpent was
the emblem of sin and judgment. As a teacher of the Older Testament
scriptures, Nicodemus will recognize this. Instead of sin and
judgment, Jesus being lifted up on the cross will be the emblem of
freedom from sin and Divine judgment. Jesus will be the beginning of
worshiping the Father in Spirit, Truth and Grace. The whole Truth
was not known fully until Jesus. The Law was in effect which was a
type and shadow of the reality in Christ. (see
Colossians 2:17)
God's
people murmured and complained about God's provision and spoke
against God's chosen leader Moses in Numbers
21.
They said, “Why
have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is
no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
They loathed the manna that God had sent. Even though God had
performed the miracle of parting the Red Sea to set them free from
bondage and deliver them from the hands of their enemies, the
Israelites were complaining about God's provision and His leader,
Moses. God had sent manna from heaven to feed His peoples' hunger
and the water from a rock to feed their thirst. Just as the
Israelites loathed the bread that God sent, the Pharisees loathed
Jesus, the Bread (Word) sent from heaven to feed our spiritual
hunger. The Pharisees, like the Jews in the wilderness, spoke
against God's Anointed One – Jesus. God says in scripture, “Touch
not My anointed ones and do My prophets no harm.” 1 Chronicles
16:22; Psalm 105:15
God
sent a brood of venomous snakes among the Israelites that bit His
people and many of them died. God's people had opened the door to the
devil because of their sin against God and His anointed one –
Moses. The serpent in scriptures is the devil and his brood of
demons. Jesus also called the Pharisees a “brood
of vipers” because
they refused to accept Jesus, the True Manna from heaven, as the Son
of God. The Jewish religious leaders were the so-called brood of
vipers. Instead of believing in Jesus, they were always biting at
Jesus' heels and trying to disprove His authenticity. Because the
Pharisees were the teachers of Israel, many Israelites would remain
spiritually dead because they talked against Jesus instead of leading
the Jews to Him. They were keeping God's people from the Truth and
the Messiah. Jesus is using the event of these past actions of the
Israelites to teach Nicodemus and illustrate what happens when people
reject God's provision-- Jesus, the Divine Bread of heaven.
Jesus
said in John
6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go
hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty....it was not
Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is My Heavenly
Father who gives you the true bread of heaven, for the bread of God
is He who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.”
The Jews pretty much idolized Moses. Jesus is saying that it wasn't
Moses but God who sent the bread down from heaven and that He is that
Bread of life. The manna in the wilderness maintained physical life,
but Jesus maintains spiritual, eternal life.
The
Israelites humbled themselves and repented of their sin against God
and Moses. Then they asked Moses to pray “that
the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for
the people. Numbers 21:7 Moses
didn't carry a grudge. He forgave them and then prayed that the Lord
would remove their punishment. God's people had sincerely repented
of their sin against God and Moses. The Lord heard the prayer of
Moses and provided a way of healing through a serpent being lifted up
on a pole. Eventually God sent Jesus to take away sin and defeat the
serpent and his demons. The serpent on the pole could only show the
Israelites the error of their ways and provide a temporary means of
escape, but Jesus being lifted up on the cross provided eternal
forgiveness and an eternal way of escape and healing.
God
gave Moses the cure. “Make
a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it
and live.” v8 Moses
obeyed God. God wanted the Israelite sinners to look at the source
of their pain and suffering so they could be healed. God exposes the
dark areas of our lives so we can be cleansed of them . John
3: 18-21 God
wants us to recognize our sin and the devil who is the source of it.
Then the Lord wants us to turn from our sin and be healed. Each
sinner's destiny was based upon their response to God and His Word.
If they did as God instructed Moses, they would be healed and live
physically. Those who respond to Jesus and obey His Word are blessed
with a “new” spiritual life and will live eternally.
In
the Older Testament, the serpent was lifted up, but in the New
Testament, Jesus who defeated the devil and his demons was lifted up.
Jesus is always the reverse of the “old.” The Law brought death
for disobedience. Jesus' obedience and death brought eternal life.
Jesus said, “Just
as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be
lifted up that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”
vv14-15 Jesus
became the curse for us. The serpents in the Older Testament had
brought pain, suffering and death. Moses' serpent lifted up on a
pole restored physical healing and life, but Jesus being lifted up on
the cross brought spiritual healing and eternal life. In the Older
Testament, the people suffered because of the bite and poison of the
snake, but in the New Testament, Jesus suffered for all to give us
victory over the serpent and his poisonous bites. The Pharisees and
Roman rulers bit at Jesus continually like a brood of vipers
(snakes).
The ways of Jesus are the antidote to the ways of the devil. God
provided a remedy in Numbers for physical healing, but He provided
the permanent and eternal remedy at the cross of Jesus Christ. Now
we must accept His sacrifice and look to Jesus with the eyes of
faith. The key to the rebirthing process is accepting the sacrifice
of Jesus on the cross, as well as His resurrection. The power of His
blood and resurrection will breathe “new” life in the Spirit
into us.
Jesus
wants Nicodemus to embrace something “new” instead of holding
onto the “old.”
Nicodemus
did not accept Jesus as the deliverer and Savior of both Jews and
Gentiles until later in scripture. Nicodemus was interested in Jesus
and listened to His words, but he didn't commit to Jesus until later.
Nicodemus would have to wait for the unfolding of the events of
Jesus' words regarding the temple (His
body) being
destroyed and in three days raised up before he finally understood
it. In the meantime, Nicodemus stood up for Jesus in John
7:50-51,
and provided the spices for His burial in John
19:38-42.
The
gift of Jesus reaches beyond salvation. Jesus wants us to know Him
intimately and understand the spiritual Kingdom of God. Salvation is
serious to God. He doesn't want us to perish. Nor did He want
Nicodemus to perish without Jesus.
God's love
The
second revelation Jesus wants Nicodemus to understand is God and His
love.
“For
God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to
save the world through Him."
The
height and depth of God's love for those who are created in His image
and likeness (humanity)
is
perfectly and fully revealed in the cross of Jesus Christ. Instead
of a serpent on a pole, God sent His Son not just for Israel but for
the whole world. “One
and Only” means
Jesus is one of a kind – unique. Jesus existed from eternity yet
became flesh on earth to die for the sins of all flesh. God and
Jesus' love is an act of will rather than a feeling. God's agape
love wills itself to work even in the face of fierce resistance. God
loves because He must. He is Love!
John
is saying throughout his writings that love is a sign that we are
born again of the Spirit and the Truth. Jesus said in John
13:35, “By this (love)
all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another.
1 John 4:7:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone who
loves is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:11:
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Romans 13:8: Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he
who loves another has fulfilled the Law.”
It
is God's love within us that shows both God and others that we are
born again in the Spirit. Jesus gives us a “new” Law – the Law
of love.
Moses lifted up the
serpent of judgment and condemnation, but Jesus was lifted up not to
condemn and judge, but to save and show us the unfailing, undying
love of the Father through Him. “Whoever believes in Him is
not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”
v18 Jesus wanted Nicodemus and us to know and understand this.
God wants that none should perish, but we must believe in His Son and
His sacrifice for all on the cross if we are to have eternal life.
Jesus is God's gift to mankind, but a gift is not a gift until it is
received and opened!
Jesus said in John
15: 13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his
life for his his friends.” NKJV And, the Apostle John wrote
in 1 John 3:16, “By this we know love, because He laid down His
life for us, And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
NKJV
The Verdict
“This
is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved
darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone
who does evil hates the Light and will not come into the Light for
fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives in the truth
comes into the Light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has
done has been done through God.” John 3: 18-21 NIV
Jesus
says that those who believe in Him are not condemned, but those who
do not believe in Him are condemned. Unbelievers don't need our
condemnation too. Unbelievers need to see the Light of Jesus in us
so they too might come to Him for salvation and enlightenment.
The
Light of the world (Jesus) has come into the world but people will
love their evil deeds more than the Light of Truth. Evil doesn't
like to be exposed. Satan and his demons work in darkness. Satan and
his demonic host want to remain hidden, sneaky and cunning. Satan
loves the concealing darkness! Satan finds pleasure in sin and
immorality, and keeping people from the Truth in Christ Jesus.
Satan's end is the fire in the belly of the earth. He wants to bring
people down into the pits of the earth with him. The old saying,
“misery loves company” applies here. Satan will work through our
sinful., fleshly nature to bring us down.
To
the contrary, however, Jesus wants to lift us up into the higher
realm with Him. He wants us to be open and honest with Him. Jesus
will shed His light upon our dark places, and the power of the Holy
Spirit will help remove them so we walk in the Light and love of
Jesus. Those who love Jesus will want to walk in His Truth.
The
devil wants to bring us further and further down, but Jesus wants to
bring us higher and higher into the high place in the heavenly
spiritual realm with Him. The choice is ours. God's love provided
the way, the truth and the life. It is every person's decision to
receive God's gift of His Son Jesus. We can't have Jesus' grace
without the light of His truth. Many people gathered around Jesus
when He performed miracles, signs and wonders, but when the Truth He
spoke penetrated their hearts and convicted them, some walked away
from Him. The Truth is for our good, not our destruction. It is the
devil who wants to destroy. Because Jesus walks in Light and is
Truth, He wants to remove the things of darkness in us so we walk in
His Light and blessing and in the fullness of all that Christ's
sacrifice bought for us. “In
Him, there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5
“He
who does the truth comes to the Light, that his deeds may be clearly
seen, that have been done in God.” These
have nothing to hide! If we are doing something that we don't want
to reveal openly, you can be sure that your flesh and the devil are
at work. There is no spiritual life in the works of the flesh. The
flesh profits nothing. But, there is life in the Truth of God –
Jesus/Word.
Sometimes
those of us who do love and follow Christ want to hold on to the sin
within us instead of letting Jesus and the Holy Spirit free us.
Letting go of the “old” opens our hearts to the “new” ways
of Christ. If we hold tight to our sin, we remain entangled in the
yoke of bondage instead of the new freedom in Christ. Jesus' way is
the better way! Jesus wants to establish us in His ways and truth.
The spiritual door that was closed and guarded in God's garden in
Genesis is now opened in Christ so we can have the same intimate
relationship with God that Adam and the Woman had before they sinned.
In order to share an intimate relationship with another, we must
learn of the person so we know him or her. The same is true with our
relationship with Jesus and the Father. We must learn of Him so we
truly know Him. It is the Word and the Holy Spirit that will bring
us to the true and full knowledge of Him.
If
you are one who has not accepted the blood sacrifice of Jesus for
your sins, today is the day of salvation. Pray a simple prayer to
Jesus that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and Lord. Ask Him to
be your Savior and Lord today. Jesus said that those who ask will
receive, those who seek will find and those who knock will have the
door opened to them. He is the only way to the Father and His
spiritual, eternal kingdom. May you come to know Jesus in a deep and
abiding way. He is the greatest love and blessing the world has ever
known.
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